Apparatus for flowing oil or gas wells



Nov, 14, 1944.

E. C. BAILY APPARATUS FOR FLOWING OIL OR GAS WELLS Filed Nov) 29, 1940EQZAN c, BAIL) INVENTOR ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 14, 1944 UNITED STATESPATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR FLOWING on. on GAS WELLS Erlan o. Baily,Oklahoma City, Okla.

Application November 29, 1940, Serial'No. 367,717

I 1 Clairn. (Cl. 103232) This invention relates to apparatus for ndmethod of continuously flowing gas wells in he presence of liquidaccumulation at the bot om thereof, and for continuously flowing oilwells having low bottom hole pressures, without the necessity ofartificially raising said bottom hole pressures, and without the use ofpumps or compressors.

To those familiar with the art of producing natural gas from from wellsit is well understood that the two greatest difficulties in continuousproduction are: first, the drop in the underground or bottom holepressure, and second, the accumulation of water or other liquid in thebottom of the hole to such an extent that it rises and covers the inletof the pipe or pipes thru which the gas is being produced, thuseffectively preventing the production of gas alone and forcing theoperator to remove the liquid from the hole bottom by pump or othermeans. The continuous or periodic removal of this water by pump or othermeans is costly, and as a consequence there are thousands of gas wellstoday which are non-productive and idle, simply because the cost ofremoving the liquid from these holes and keeping it below a certainlevel costs more than the value of the gas produced. Similarly there arethousands of oil wells which are not at present producing oil,-simplybecause the cost of pumping the oil from them is greater than the valueof the oil produced; and there are other thousands of oil wells whichare being pumped at present, but which return their operators only avery small net profit because of the high cost of the pumping operation.

In view of these difficulties, it is the chief object of this inventionto provide apparatus which will continuously raise either gas or oil orother liquid from the bottom of a well to the earths surface, yet whichrequires only the existing bottom hole pressure to do so.

Another object of the invention is to provide apparatus which willmaintain the liquid at the bottom of a well cavity at a selected level,thus leaving the major portion of the walls of the cavity, and of theproducing formation, exposed to permit the free ingress of oil or gasinto the cavity. r

The details in the construction of a preferred form of my invention,together with other objects not previously mentioned, will be betterunderstood from the following description when read in connection withthe accompanying drawing, which are chosen for illustrative purposesonly. and in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a" well drilledinto the earths surface, and illustrates one embodiment of the inventioninstalled therein, parts of the invention being shown in elevation andparts in section;

Figure 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of a portion of theapparatus illustrated in Figure 1.' y

In considering the following description of the invention, it should beborne in mind that the principle on which this invention is based is:that while it takes approximately 170# per square inch bottom holepressure to continuously fiow a solid column of oil or mixed oil andwater- 400 feet high, a pressure of only 40# per square inch is'capable' of continuously flowing aAOO ft. column of a mixture of air orgas and water or oil in which mixture the liquid is atomized and makesup only 25% or less of the total mixture. In

other words, by. atomizing the liquid a lower pressure is capable oflifting it, though at a reduced volume of flow.

To accomplish the objects above recited I provide' a packer 5 (Figure 1)of any suitable type which is placed at any desired'level in the drilledwell above the upper end of the cavity 4 at the well bottom, and servesto shut off the well cavity (and the producing formation) from thatportion of the well above the packer, forming a closed pressure chambertherebelow.

In the well cavit 4 I position one or more ejectors of any standard typeor design. In Figure 1 it will be seen that twin ejectors, designated asa whole by the numerals 6 and I, aresuspended from the lower ends ofthree separate strings of tubing8, 9 and I0, each of which is suitablyanchored at the earths surface, and extends downward thru the packer 5,and into the well cavity.

The strings 8 and 9 serve as production tubing for carrying gas, gas andatomized oil, or gas and atomized water to .the earths surface. Eachcommunicates at its upper end with a header pipe II which serves todeliver the production to any desired point. Volume flow thru thesestrings of production tubing into the'pipe I l is controlled or shut offby valves l2 and I3 respectively. The

lowermost ends of each of these strings of production tubing 8 and 8 arerespectively fitted with ejector sections l4, and IS, the lower ends ofwhich are in the form ofcombination suction ing from and rigidly securedto the lower ends of both these sections l4 and I5 is a substantiallycylindrical open bottomed skirtl8, the side wall of which is providedwith a plurality, of inlet perforations l9. Rigidly supported within theskirt 18 are a pair of short pipe sections 20 and 2|, the upper ends ofwhich are fitted respectively with gas delivery atomizing jets 22 and23, and the lower ends of which openly communicate with the tubingstring l through an intake pipe section 29, as shown. At some paintbelow the packer a. four-way open cross joint 28 is inserted in thetubing string I 0, the two open ends of the joint afiording freeentrance for gas into this tubing, from the interior of said closedpressure chamber. The upper end of tubing string III is normally closedby a control valve 21, and may also be fitted with a suitable gauge 25for gauging the bottom hole pressure when desired. Actually, the entiretubing tring III is not essential to the operation of the apparatus, andthat portion of it which extends from the packer to the earth's surfacemay be completely eliminated. When installed, however, it may be usedfor gauging the bottom hole presusre, for cleaning on liquid from thewell cavity after a shutdown, or for continuously supplying pressure tothe ejectors either to supplement 'or to replace bottom hole pressure.The last mentioned operations are accomplished by connecting thedischarge line from a compressor to the nipple 26, and opening the valve24. In case it is desired to continuously supply pressure from theearth's surface, the cross joint 28 may be eliminted, or, as shown, theoperation may be facilitated by the installation of a pipe 21 (Figure 2)in the line at the four-way cross joint 28 at the time the tubing stringis assembled. This pipe serves to conduct air or gas at, high speed'to apoint well past the open intake ports in this cross joint, and well intothe pipe section 29 below, which feeds the ejectors. This arrangementprevents any great loss of the air or gas being force fed to theejectors.

The apparatus illustrated and described is primarily for use incomparatively shallow wells, or in wells of medium depth in which thebottom hole pressure is still fairly high, but in which the inflow ofliquid is excessive. When installed in such wells it will be'seen thatthe gas which coland increasing the number of jets used, the liquid cannaturally be removed at a greater rate, and can be lifted a greaterdistance. The number of jets required and the passage area required canbe determined mathematically after the bottom hole pressure and the rateof accumulation of liquid has been determined by measurement. Naturally,thecapacity of the jets to raise liquid from the well should be greaterthan the flow of liquid into the well. Thus the liquid would nevercompletely cover the jet intake openings, and the raising or lowering ofthe jets in the well would determine the maximum permitted liquid level.Should the rate of accumulation of liquid decrease after prolongedcontinuous production, one or more of the strings of production tubingmay be taken out of operation by simply closing one or more of thecontrol valves l2 or l3, thus conserving the gas pressure. If water,alone, is

accumulating at the well bottom, and gas is the sole valuable productbeing produced, then the more strings of production tubing in operation,the better.- By lowering the jets 22 and 23 to a point near or justbelow the bottom surface of the lowermost producing sand, the liquid iskept oi? the sand, and a much greater area of the producing sand is thusfreed of any obstruction to the inflow of gas or liquid into the wellcavity.

This i an extremely important result produced by the invention, and has,in actual use, raised the gas production of a well by as much as 500%.

While I have described and illustrated only one specific embodiment ofmy invention I am aware that numerous alterations and changes maybe madetherein Without transcending the invention disclosed, and I do not wishto be limited except by the prior art and by the scope of the appendedclaim.

I claim:

3 Apparatus for utilizing natural bottom hole gas lects above the liquidin the closed pressure champressure to raise liquid from a well cavityto the earth's surface, comprising: a string of production tubing forconducting gas and oil from the well cavity to the earths surface;packing means between said production-tubing and the wall of the wellforming a closed chamber below it for theaccumulation of gas and liquid;aliquid atomizin jet positioned to discharge upwardly into the lower endof said production tubing; an open feeder pipe for continuously feedinggas from th space above the liquid in said closed chamber to said jet;and a conduit extending from the earths surface through said packingmeans into said closed chamber, its open lower end extending well intothe open upper end of said feeder pipe to form an injector.

ERLAN C. BAILY.

